Damaged
by Cody'sxFavoritexGirl
Summary: Zack stepped closer to her and got right up in her face, his eyes burning with anger and his mouth contorted into a snarl. "Maybe you just don't know me as well as you think you do." Zack Ryder/Eve Torres one-shot. Please R&R.


**A/N: I own nothing, so don't sue. This takes place after Kane beat up Zack Ryder on tonight's RAW. This is a Zack Ryder/Eve Torres fic. Reviews are very welcome. Enjoy.**

**Damaged**

Eve Torres rushed through the backstage hallways, heading for the gorilla position. She had just finished watching the Zack Ryder and Kane versus The Miz and Daniel Bryan tag team match, and her heart had leapt into her throat when a furious Kane had turned his rage for Bryan on Zack. When the Devil's Favorite Demon had seized Zack by the throat and choke-slammed him, Eve had had to bite her hand to keep from screaming out. Even so, Natalya, who had been standing next to her, had looked at her in concern and asked her if she was okay. But Eve hadn't stuck around long enough to answer.

She reached the gorilla position just as Kane emerged from the curtain, and Eve quickly backed up, anxious to get out of his way. The Big Red Monster just shot her a cool glare as he passed, and then he was gone and Eve was turning towards the curtain again, hoping and praying that Zack would be walking and not being rolled by on a stretcher.

The curtain was shoved roughly aside, and Zack limped through, holding his side and grimacing as each step he took jarred his injury. Eve felt a huge rush of relief that was quickly swamped by worry. He was hurt, but how bad?

"Zack!" Eve called, hurrying over to him. Zack looked up at her, but his usually bright brown eyes were dull with pain and something close to anger.

"What do you want?" he snapped, and Eve stopped dead. Zack never snapped at her. He must be hurt worse than she had originally thought.

"I–I wanted to make sure you were okay," Eve stammered, caught off guard by Zack's unusually sharp tone.

"Well obviously I'm not," Zack snarled. "Now leave me alone." He shoved past her and stalked off down the hall, leaving Eve standing there, her mind a whirlwind of hurt.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

After the show, Eve sat in her locker room, brushing through her caramel-colored hair and thinking about Zack. Something was seriously wrong with him, and it wasn't just because Kane attacked him. No, Zack had been acting strange for weeks now, and Eve was worried about him. For the normally bouncy and hyper Long Island Iced-Z to all of a sudden act depressed and shut-off was just not right.

Eve growled deep in her throat and tossed the hairbrush back into her gear bag. This was going to drive her crazy unless she found out what the problem was, so she pulled on a pair of black shorts and a white tank top and left the locker room, determined to discover what was wrong with Zack.

A couple of minutes later Eve stood outside Zack's locker room. She raised her hand to knock but hesitated, recalling how angry he'd been with her earlier and starting to second-guess her decision. But before she could chicken-out, she rapped her fist firmly on the door twice.

A minute passed, and then the door swung open to reveal a scowling Zack Ryder. He was bare-chested and holding an ice pack to his bruised ribs, and he didn't look pleased to see her.

"You again," he growled, shifting the ice pack on his chilled skin. "What do you want now?"

Summoning up her courage, Eve blurted out, "You haven't been acting like yourself, Zack, and I just wanted to know what's wrong."

Zack eyed her coolly, his brown eyes sweeping over her face and making her shiver. The warm, kind eyes that she had gazed into so often before were gone, to be replaced with hardness. This Zack wasn't the one that she had fallen in love with.

"What makes you think that anything's wrong?" Zack asked, setting his mouth in a tight line.

"Because this isn't you!" Eve cried, all of her worry and sadness pouring out all at once. "You're not like this. You don't glare at everybody that you pass in the hall and you don't yell at me. What happened to you, Zack? Where did the real you go?"

"Maybe this is the real me!" Zack shouted, exploding suddenly. He threw the partially-melted ice pack to the floor, the sound of the chunk of ice striking the concrete making Eve flinch. Zack stepped closer to her and got right up in her face, his eyes burning with anger and his mouth contorted into a snarl. "Maybe you just don't know me as well as you think you do. I bet that's a foreign concept to you, huh? The great Eve Torres being unable to read somebody. You think you're so smart, but you obviously weren't smart enough to avoid getting close to me. This is who I am, Eve!" Zack jabbed a finger at himself, still holding her gaze. "I'm an asshole who hurts people. I don't make friends, I break them. So do yourself a favor and stay the hell away from me!"

With that, Zack stepped back into his locker room and slammed the door in her face.

Eve stood there for what felt like forever, the world spinning around her. It was hard for her to process what Zack had just said. She'd thought they'd had something together, a bond of some sorts. But obviously she had been wrong.

Her pain-filled brown gaze fell to the ice pack sitting in a puddle on the floor, and she dropped to her knees beside it. Her fingers curled around the hunk of ice and she pulled it to her chest. She held it against her skin, the stinging coolness of the ice the only thing keeping her sane and stopping her heart from dying.

Maybe Zack was right. Maybe she wasn't as smart as she thought she was.

**END**


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